Sometimes it is more important to keep score than to keep scoring.Īs might be expected, the passage infuriates the critic. Not as much as the critic thinks, and rarely as much as the man who is actually in the arena, but the soul of the critic is not always cold and timid, and the arena man (gladiator or martyr) would do well to keep a wary eye on the judges in the grandstand. “It is not the critic who counts” can be seen, let's face it, as anti‐intellectual, disparaging the man of thought while exalting the man of action, similar to the scornful “if you can't do, teach.” The contempt the President holds for carping critics is an inextricable part of his character, at times a source of strength, at other times a cause of self. Nixon viewed the lines in 1960, and does today, “straight”-without irony-as vividly expressive of his own attitude toward life in general, and to the political life in particular. The lines are quoted in irony, to make the author's point that men are not necessarily ennobled by fighting the good fight. To play wright Jason Miller, the passage is the essence of boosterism and false pride, the ultimate alibi of a loser savaged by society finding his loneliness and rejection incomprehensible, he searches for solace-even a kind of victory- in blindly having made an effort to win.Ĭontrariwise (my favorite adverb), novelist Wicker sees “the man in the arena” as a self‐styled Christian martyr facing the lions in a moral arena- brave, noble, praiseworthy and doomed. In “That Championship Season,” the Roosevelt lines are quoted by a reac tionary who wallows in past glories and draws his only strength from the old hatreds of a gladiator. If you’re going to fail, then at least dare greatly, and remember, it’s not the critic who counts.“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood who strives valiantly who errs and comes short again and again who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achieve ment and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither vic tory nor defeat.” If you’ve ever been in a situation that requires great courage, skill or tenacity, then, you know what it’s like to be “the man in the arena.” The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the deeds who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions who spends himself in a worthy cause who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” “ It is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The Man in the Arena is a famous passage from the speech Citizenship in a Republic, given by by Theodore Roosevelt. One of my mentors shared their favorite inspirational passage with me.
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